And the winner is ...

The search for a new BBC director general really begins now that Michael Grade has been appointed chairman of the governors. But who will he choose? MediaGuardian broadcasting writers give their tips for the top - and why

Michael Grade first came to the BBC in 1984 when the corporation was at a low point: it faced vigorous audience competition from the new Channel 4, it had scheduled the critically-maligned Thorn Birds, when Granada was displaying the Jewel in the Crown and it faced a struggle for the renewal of the licence fee. Politicians such as Douglas Hurd and journalists such as Max Hastings questioned whether the BBC should be funded by the licence fee when the commercial sector did as good a job - if not better.

So Grade will be very used to the arguments which embroil the corporation. His appointment will immediately cheer up the BBC internally, and it may well change the nature of the director general's appointment. Grade is not a Birtist and this will raise a question over Mark Byford, current acting DG and Birt's preferred successor. More tellingly Grade is likely to see the internal morale of the BBC as highly important and Byford does not have enough support among his senior colleagues to secure this.

Grade's strengths are in scheduling and programming, as well as some exposure to the wider world of business. As a self-confessed Grumpy Old Man he has expressed some irritation with technological progress in the past and might well want a DG who errs to the strategic and open-minded in terms of websites and digital progression. This could favour Mark Thompson at Channel 4 who may now feel inspired to set his hat at his dream job. It is vital that the BBC finds the right terms of reference for a charter renewal, which is about far more than just securing the funding for a further 10 years.

With the conciliatory appointment of Grade however, the DCMS has signalled a truce with the BBC. Grade would almost certainly lean towards the Gavyn Davies view of the Kelly affair, that the BBC's independence was menaced by a bullying administration, and he is not likely to turn into a new Labour lapdog. Under his chairmanship we can expect a pretty speedy halt to the public self-abasement which immediately followed Hutton.

Maggie Brown Tips: Mark Thompson and Mark Byford

Michael Grade is fortunate. He has a pool of experienced people to choose his director general from, who would all perform pretty well. There has long been a strategy of developing top talent at the BBC - although some leave, then come back. The beneficiaries include Mark Thompson, Jana Bennett and Jenny Abramsky.

Grade has also been pretty detached from the mainstream television scene for six years. He's formed no particular alliances with any candidate.

This should give him objectivity as he swiftly reopens the DG process. There will also be, surely, a reshuffle of the top tier, certainly in news and current affairs. Stewart Purvis, the hugely experienced former chief executive of ITN, springs to mind as a potential recruit.

Grade was never a hands-on programme commissioner. Nor has he ever run a broadcaster's journalistic output, but he knows where political conflicts arise. A general election may be just a year away.

But I also think Grade's most recent chairmanship at Camelot speaks volumes about his matured style. There he worked well with the incumbent chief executive Dianne Thompson, part of the lottery's launch team. He's not going to seek a BBC clear-out.

Grade expects to focus on the big issues, reform of the BBC's governance, campaigning for a licence fee, checking its commercial spread. The PR maestro knows it needs better PR.

He requires as a director general absolutely not another Greg Dyke but a strong, tough executive, with a reduced number of people directly reporting to him or her.

Mark Byford, acting director general, was dealt a very difficult hand. He has not made the best of it, with misjudged television appearances. But he is a serious person, a die-hard BBC loyalist and his commitment to public service broadcasting is not in doubt, despite the current hysteria among top presenters/editors over the internal disciplinary Hutton inquiry. He is a workhorse. Can he be a unifying candidate? Well, if he is passed over Grade must find a way to keep him.

Mark Thompson has the broader experience and the intellectual polish to deliver joined-up thinking without trespassing on to the Grade show. The final brownie point: he's also spent time correcting the excesses of Grade's Channel 4 successor, Michael Jackson.

Janine Gibson Tips: Jana Bennett, Peter Bazalgette and Mark Thompson

For weeks some of the wisest sages of broadcasting and politics have been absolutely adamant that there was no way this government would appoint Michael Grade to the chair of the BBC. There was almost no point discussing him, he was a non-runner.

In defence of the sages, there was of course no precedent for someone with broadcasting experience, charisma and authority but no political history to get the job. It's such an uncynical appointment that it may be meta-cynical.

But let's not dwell on motives. In the spirit of a genuinely good piece of politicking and filled with open-hearted enthusiasm for Grade's "relaunched" search for a DG, I offer him a shortlist filled with able candidates who offer the best in programming, strategy and management that broadcasting has to offer. None of these will show him up in a select committee hearing of the annual report; all should be able to work with Grade's viewer and listener focused Dyke-ist rather than Birt-ist BBC; and though they have different strengths, all understand public service broadcasting.

Jana Bennett, director of television, hasn't yet applied but should do now. The only things that stand between her and this job are a possible lack of very senior experience - which also stopped Grade at a similar point in his career - and some diffidence in her public speaking.

Peter Bazalgette, critical friend of the BBC, would be an interesting choice. Although he hasn't been mentioned much so far, Bazalgette might be tempted by Grade, and if he can be separated from his share options in Endemol would show creative leadership; though some question whether he has the top-flight chief executive skills.

Then there's Mark Thompson, chief executive of Channel 4 and where I would have placed my metaphorical cash at the start of this race. Ladbrokes quoted 7 to 1 on Thompson when Greg Dyke left the building and that always looked like a good bet. He's been in training for DG all his career and he and Grade might balance each other rather well. Still, I've tipped him now, so that's torn it.

Appointing a director general should be easy. There are only a handful of people who can do this job, but this time round there are a few - others such as Jenny Abramsky and John Willis would prove good short-term choices - who are very capable. And as long as the chairman knows enough to know that, it should be a straightforward process. Grade can get the best person. The hardest bit is over.

David Liddiment Tips: Mark Byford, John Willis

Michael Grade's appointment is a triple whammy for the London Weekend school of TV executives. Assuming he serves a full term it will mean that LWT has had leaders at the BBC, either as DGs like John Birt and Greg Dyke and now with a chairman, for 15 years. It is one of the great ironies that the most precious cultural institution in Britain has been vested in the hands of the commerical sector for so long.

Grade was a strong critic of Birt and used his MacTaggart lecture in 1992 for a stinging attack on Birt's BBC. It's a healing appointment in a number of ways - primarily because he has a strong track record of fighting the course for editorial independence for broadcasters, for fighting for what he believes in. His programme background and his charisma lead me to believe that his leadership skills for a creative organisation are not in question.

This probably leaves the DG field wide open and I would not rule out Mark Byford. The acting DG knows the place inside out, has the confidence of the governors and has the news and current affairs rigour to complement Grade's showmanship. It is worth remembering that when Grade took over Channel 4 from Jeremy Isaacs he left the key management intact but was still able to galvanise the organisation.

However Grade might plump for his old C4 colleague, John Willis, who is now at the BBC, brought in by Dyke to run factual output. They had a great working relationship at C4 and Grade might want to rekindle that. He also fits the bill in that he is a current affairs man with a distinguished programme making track record. Johnny Come Home for Yorkshire was his most famous documentary. He also had commercial experience as director of programmes for Clive Hollick at United Media.

Matt Wells Tips: John Willis, Jana Bennett and AN Other

The first effect of Michael Grade's appointment on the process of selecting a director general was dramatic. At his acclamatory press conference in the corporation's new "media centre" in White City on Friday, Grade announced that the selection procedure was being re-started.

It was a growing inevitability: until then, there were only two internal candidates due to have been interviewed tomorrow - Jenny Abramksy, the director of radio and music, and Mark Byford, the acting incumbent. In an inexplicable development John Willis, the highly regarded director of factual and learning, appears - if Media Guardian's single source on this is correct - not to have made it to the interview list. At least one outside candidate was due to face the panel: Tony Hall, the Birtist former director of news and an unsuccessful candidate last time round, now executive director at the Royal Opera House. It was a pitifully poor list. Why no Mark Thompson, chief executive of Channel 4, yet to sign a golden handcuffs deal that would rule him out? Nor Michael Jackson, the former controller of BBC2, now watching events closely from his eyrie in the United States? Why no Jana Bennett, the popular director of television brought in by Greg Dyke to inject some public service value, into his increasingly commercial schedules?

The answer, of course, is that the whole process was something of a charade. "It's like saying I'm getting married on Saturday but I don't know who I'm marrying," one BBC executive said at the weekend.

Now that the process has effectively been torn up, the serious business of selecting the right person for the job can get under way. Grade has spent 25 years in television, and he has encountered many talented people in his time. Willis was his director of programmes at Channel 4, which must put him at a signal advantage this time round. He will, doubtless, reach the shortlist. It must also be good news for the straight-talking Jana Bennett, who was incorrectly described last week as being wary of the job because of the effect its pressures might have on her young children. But it may be even better news for A N Other: the outside bet, on whom Grade has kept a watching eye all these years, but has never made it to any of these tiresome media guess-lists.